In traditional African religion the community is the most important part of someone's life. The individual only exists within the community and separation from it is sometimes worse than death. According to Gottlieb and Mbiti: The environment and nature are infused in every aspect of traditional African religions and culture. Many of the World Religions are more known than ATR in many parts of Africa (Adedeji, 2012). By this label serious damage was done to the gospel in Africa. Since Africa is a large continent with many ethnic groups and cultures, there is not one single technique of casting divination. In this second edition, Dr Mbiti has updated his material to include the involvement of women in religion, and the potential unity to be found in what was once thought to be a mass of quite separate religions. Traditional African religions also have elements of fetishism, shamanism and veneration of relics. The concept of culture includes not �yD���xjm�5o=? Everyone is welcome in the society because Africans are born into the religion. [8][9], Although the majority of Africans today are adherents of Christianity or Islam, African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions. This community is made up of people who remember and share the same traditions. Some African Religions even distinguish more than one spiritual essence residing within a person. Last week, in a veiled comparison between African traditional religions and Christianity, which is the major religion in Jamaica, some of the key elements of African traditional religions were discussed using Kenya-born Professor John S. Mbiti, a well-known scholar and researcher of African religions, as the main reference. Cf. People could notice that the new-born child, who was named after the one who died, While some religions adopted a pantheistic worldview, most follow a polytheistic system with various gods, spirits and other supernatural beings. Conflict is a reality. It does not exist in a vacuum or up there in the blues but among humans. A belief in ancestors also testifies to the inclusive nature of traditional African spirituality by positing that deceased progenitors still play a role in the lives of their living descendants. [30], West and Central African religious practices generally manifest themselves in communal ceremonies or divinatory rites in which members of the community, overcome by force (or ashe, nyama, etc. When we speak of African Traditional Religion, we mean the indigenous religious beliefs ... many basic similarities in the religious systems—everywhere there is the concept of God (called ... 9 C. Bouquet, Man and Deity, Heffer, Cambridge, 1933, p.106. Some African religions adopted different views through the influence of Islam or even Hinduism.[36]. [37] The deities and spirits are honored through libation or sacrifice (of animals, vegetables, cooked food, flowers, semi-precious stones and precious metals). Africans who are notoriously religious who “eat religiously, drink religiously, bath religiously, dress religiously and sin religiously.”5 Cherish, nourish and sustain the institution … 5. [25], Some researchers, including historical ethnolinguist Christopher Ehret, suggest that certain monotheistic concepts, such as the belief in a creator god or force (next to other gods, deities and spirits) are ancient and indigenous among peoples of the Niger-Congo ethnolinguistic family (of much of West Africa and Central Africa) and date to the beginning of their history, in a form substantially different from the monotheism found in Abrahamic religions. To recover what got lost in the fall, man has tried to appease God through sacrifices and offerings. African Traditional Religion has sometimes been described as ancestor religion by scholars as if this is what defines this religion. Transcendence in African traditional religions Francis Rakotsoane1 Department of Theology and Religious Studies National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho Introduction ‛Transcendence’ is derived from the Latin word transcendere, which means to ascend on or elevate oneself above (Mondin 1991:196). OLUPONA: If we lose traditional African religions, we would also lose or continue to seriously undermine the African practice of rites of passage such as the much cherished age-grade initiations, which have for so long integrated and bought Africans together under a common understanding, or worldview. Religion the community and separation from it is sometimes worse than death,. 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